LMA's 35th annual convention

IESPITE heavy snows swirling l/31su16 the High Sierras, a strong turnout made it to the 35th annual Lumber Merchants Association of Northern California meeting, held at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. Lake Tahoe. Nv.

Consumer protection and the consumer movement, as well as election of new officers, roundtables, panel discussions and speeches, featured the program.

James P. DiGrazia, director of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the opening speaker, warned that dealers, if aware of defects in a product, are required by law to alert the agency. He noted that such reports are not self incriminating, however.

He said that last year they fielded some 250 reports and that three of the products involved-a table saw, drop light and chain saw-were deemed by the agency to be unsafe and were either corrected or removed from the marketplace.

Consumers have a very low safety awareness, DiGrazia said, and rely on the dealer to provide safe products. Responding'to a question, he affirmed that the Banned Hazardous Product/

1975-1976 Officers & Board of Directors

President fbt v.p. Bud Spencer Treasurer

...Jerry DeCou lll 2ndv.p.

....Bill Oberholser

Bruce Pohle Directors

Dave Kirk Dick Edmiston

Homer Hayward

Tom Martin

Art Masters

Insurance Trust. chairman

Merle Mensinger

Embree Cross

Charles Fowler

Roy Parsons

Substance posters were still required to be posted.

Operating on what he described as

Story at a Glance

Consumerism, consumer protection and the dealer's liability election of officers and directors

. dealer/supplierpanel discussions and roundtables make this year's LMA convention one of the best. "a paltry $35 million annual budget," he emphaSized that the agency tried for voluntary compliance with the law, but that if this was not forthcoming, they would not hesitate to use the laws established for this purpose. He described the laws as "powerful."

InsuranceTrust. advisor......

Elmer Rau National Board.

Jerry DeCou lll

Harry Mendenhall

National Board, alternates Executive Committee

Bud Spencer

Bill Oberholser

Bob Kimble

Don McCann

Bob Schlotthauer

Breezie Cross. Truckee-Tahoe Lumber Co., Truckee, Ca., and president of LMA's Young Westerners Club, lead off a club panel with an appeal for more employers to support the organization within an organization. "It pays employers to back YWC as it trains young men for you, shows you care about their business development, and can broaden them to become reallv effective managers in the future," he said.

YWC secretary Phil Nishimoto, Hayward Lumber, Salinas, Ca., related changes in the firm's operation, discussing the increasing number of women customers and increased expenditures for tv advertising.

"The future is young people, we need your help and support now," urged Gary Walter, M&S Building Supply, Monterey, Ca., YWC v.p. Observing the growing role of the young, he noted that even presidents are younger now than in the past.

At a special luncheon, May 5, Andy Armstrong, v.p. of Armstrong Cork Company's consumer affairs dept, urged LMAers to treat consumerism as a selling challenge, to communicate more effectively and to take a creative approach simply because it is good business. Recognize that consumerism is a part ofdoing business,he counseled, and that it requires involvement by top people.

He said there are three major areas:

(l) Understand your customer.

(2) Establish a system for handling customer complaints.

(3) Monitor those activities that create the consumer's understanding of your business.

Armstrong said that poor business decisions in the past caused the rise of consumerism and that today it is a sophisticated, organLed movement. Consumerism demands that the customer's needs be satisfied before the seller's needs.

"All the customer is saying," Armstrong explained, "is: 'please pay attention to my needs and respond to them."'

Safety awards presentations followed Armstrong's speech and a number of dealers were recognized for their important contributions to improved safety practices.

Next day, closing day of the convention, a Western Region Dealer and Supplier panel began with a presentation by Bob Bush, Bayview Lumber Co., Cosmopolis, Wa., (7 stores, 150 employees doing $14 million) who noted that the government wants to guarantee the consumer against prac- tically everything, but that there is no guarantee for the businessman.

He said flatly that firmswould either get into more intensive managemerit of their business or they would go bankrupt in 1976. "\ile forecast a good year, but we've got our work cut out for ourselves."

Southern California retailer Frank Purcell, president, Builders Supply, Palm Springs, said the decline in tourism has hurt their trade area (3300 unsold units, mostly condos) and that d-i-y has replaced builder business as their strong suit.

Purcell noted that they instituted a $5 minimum on charge cards January I , and felt that negative reaction to it had been minimal. For his firm, the coming year would be one for "going back to basics, controlling costs and increasing inventory turns."

Joe Mayfield, ending his year as LMA president, felt that new housing starts may fall below the one million

(Please turn to page 10 )

AFTER SPEECH parley (1) with Andy Armstrong and lke Zafrani, Homer Hayward. (2) Joe Vaeth, Jim and Jo Webber, Art Masters. (3) Ross Kincaid, Bob Bush, Frank

(Continued from page I ) mark and observed that everyone must continue to look elsewhere than the builder for new business. His firrn, Mendo Mill and Lumber. is located in Ukiah, Ca., which presently suffers from a 24% unemployment rate.

He suggested that everyone in the business should make a "gross reevaluation of their business and then take action." Mayfield said that he was not pessirnistic and that the opportunity to be profitable was present in 1975 and it "would be more so in 1976."

Despite the pressures on timber availability, Simpson Timber's Len Viale said his instinct for the coming year was one of "cautious optimism."

He urged that everyone work together to try and help the timber industry retain its rights to cut timber, especially in the area of environmental impact reports.

Owens Corning's Gary Hatfield stressed that consumers are "energy conscious," but now need to be stimu- lated to actually go to the dealers and buy and then install the product. Noting new state requirements for insulation, he forecast retail salespotentials for this kind of product to be bullish.

Robert Mullen, Western manager of Armstrong residential ceiling system sales, noted their business was up in the first quarter of 1975, compared with the same period in the previous year.

Noting that remodeling is the strength of their business, which includes carpeting, he said that increases in the remodeling business continue at a rate of from lO%-15% each year. He said some shortages in insulation sheathing may result later this year.

Panel members and the audience then divided into three groups for a roundtable examination of problems in the areas of advertising; manufacturers literature and in-store displaysl promotional materials: self-service merchandisingl personnel training: local sales clinics and salesmanship classes. New officers and directors were elected at the meeting with the top spot going to Jerry DeCou III, president of the DeCou Lumber Co.. Atascadero. Ca. He begair'r his industry career in 1958 when he purchased his father's one-half interest in the Hagle-DeCou Lumber Co. ln 1973 he purchased the remaining interest and renamed the firm. In addition to LMA, he is active in a number of civic and social groups. A full listing of officers and directors appears in the box accompanying this article.

And the Arab oil minister, listed in the program for the final luncheon as His Excellency Ibn Ben Salaam, he turned out to be George Veliotes, a banquet speaker who specializes in such put-ons and turned up a few years back masquerading as a Russian Communist.

Oh well, after the events of the last year or so, it's not surprising that you can't tell the players even with a programl

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Hiooins Lumber has been deliverinq service and quality sincE"1883. Ourthree convenient locitions and dcres bf ready-for-delivery lumber makes H igg ins Northern Californias leadinq wholesale distributor of hardwoods.We can also su[ply all of your needs for kiln- dried and air-dried softwoods, as well as plywood. Hiqqins distribution vards are located in San Francisco, Slcramento and Union City.This lets us give our customers throughout Northern California fast and efficient service.

At Higgins, lumber is our business-and over the vears weVe carved a name ior ourselves in it.

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